{"id":320190,"date":"2021-02-09T17:33:32","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T22:33:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=320190"},"modified":"2024-01-11T09:24:22","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T14:24:22","slug":"latosha-brown-discusses-upcoming-post-election-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2021\/02\/latosha-brown-discusses-upcoming-post-election-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Organizing, but not compartmentalizing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tNation & World\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tOrganizing, but not compartmentalizing\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tLaTosha Brown puts her whole being into increasing voter turnout\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\n\t

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\n\t\tManisha Aggarwal-Schifellite\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\"LaTosha

Courtesy of LaTosha Brown<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n

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Almost 30 years into her career as an organizer, philanthropist, scholar, and political leader, LaTosha Brown<\/a> knows how to recognize a moment. Brown, a founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund<\/a> and the Southern Black Girls and Women\u2019s Consortium<\/a>, saw the 2020 election and Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol as part of a larger paradigm shift in economic, political, and social reality in the U.S. Black Voters Matter was instrumental in increasing voter turnout across the country and particularly in Georgia, where two Democrats beat Republican incumbents to take control of the U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown is a Hauser Leader at the Center for Public Leadership and an American Democracy Fellow at Harvard\u2019s Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, which, with the Women and Public Policy Program, are hosting a post-election conversation<\/a> on Thursday at which Brown will speak on those changes. The talk will be moderated by Khalil Gibran Muhammad, professor of history, race and public policy at Harvard Kennedy School and the Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown spoke to the Gazette about her experience building political power in the South, the value of culture in organizing strategy, and her hopes for the future of American democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q&A<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

LaTosha Brown<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

GAZETTE:<\/strong><\/strong> What are some of the themes you will discuss in your talk, reflecting on the 2020 election cycle and the successes of your organizing work to empower voters?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BROWN:<\/strong><\/strong> This is a critical moment for people to really understand that the election isn\u2019t the endpoint. In some ways, it\u2019s the beginning point for a new kind of political era. It\u2019s important for us to be very reflective around what happened in 2020 so that we can actually draw on the lessons that can be learned in terms of what worked and what didn\u2019t work. It\u2019s also important to understand the fragility of democracy and our individual and institutional roles in strengthening democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GAZETTE:<\/strong><\/strong> What have you been reflecting on since the 2020 election and the inauguration of President Biden?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BROWN: <\/strong><\/strong>At some point, I felt every human emotion you can feel. What I know for sure is: organizing works, and that organized power was realized power. And I\u2019m saying that because this is work that I\u2019ve been doing for 27 years. I don\u2019t even know how many campaigns I worked on. I\u2019ve done everything from being the girl who was responsible for picking up the food boxes for the workers on Election Day to being a candidate to being the person brought into the room with the president to ask my opinion. There are some constant beliefs that I had, and one was this question of: within a system that is inherently racist, and is designed for the majority to maintain power, can democracy be a vehicle for my community to advance and impact the political landscape? I knew it to be the case in some ways, but it\u2019s also one of those fears that you just keep testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GAZETTE:<\/strong><\/strong> What does democracy look like to you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BROWN:<\/strong><\/strong> I think a significant amount of white people in this country see democracy as a system that exists and will self-correct, [but] Black folks see democracy as a mechanism of protecting our communities and being able to create space, to have influence and agency over that which governs us, and who governs us. We attach to the value of democracy not just this ideology [and] this particular system that justifies American exceptionalism. [That] foundation is rooted in white supremacy. At best, its democracy has been aspirational, but it\u2019s not been achieved until every single citizen in this country has the ability to operate in that agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GAZETTE:<\/strong><\/strong> What do you think should come out of this election cycle in terms of our understanding of these issues?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“This is a critical moment for people to really understand that the election isn\u2019t the endpoint. In some ways, it\u2019s the beginning point for a new kind of political era.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

BROWN:<\/strong><\/strong> We have to reckon with what created this [situation] if we don\u2019t want this again. If we just pick back up and do the same thing, it\u2019s going to ultimately lead to this again. There\u2019s been an exposure of the fragility of democracy, and we can\u2019t unsee that. We can\u2019t act like it doesn\u2019t exist. It is far bigger than Trump or the Trump administration. Cracks in the foundation of democracy in this country have been exposed and revealed. We\u2019ve got to have a reckoning of how we got to this place and we also have to really fit in this question around, like Dr. King asked, \u201cWhere do we go from here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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